My GF is actually pretty good with money. If there is something she wants, she’ll actually ask me if she can get it, and most times I will say yes.

Unlike my ex which would actually spend-spend-spend on stupid things like taking her dog to a wash, or getting her nails done, when she should have been paying her bills, which I ended up paying on top of all that anyway.

If the husband spends money that is in no way related to the wife or household–then it it wasted money. This includes single movie tickets instead of paired, single stadium tickets bought without consultation or consent, etc. Ok–lets hear from the guys now.

Oh, and she also wastes a lot of snack foods by buying it and only eating/drinking a small amount of it before it goes bad. Rotten fruit, half empty sodas and glasses of juice, frost-burned ice cream, stale cookies, etc…

I am bad with money, the Mrs. is so tight she squeaks. So, it works out that we are fairly frugal. I managed all of the money until 5 years ago and I decided she needed to take over.

As an example she wants to spend $20 on a dress shirt for me that will last a couple of months tops and I want a dress shirt that costs $100 that will last a couple of years. Same thing with ties. But she is getting the idea. Just last week she bought some decent cloths for herself and she is so much more comfortable and looks better than when she wears the bargain basement stuff. She gets compliments as well. So we watch for sales and discounts therefore satisfying both of us.

Both our incomes go into one bucket. Savings is taken out first then investments followed by bills. The leftover goes to savings. We live modestly, a little below our means in order to save and invest for our future.

I am married to a man who does not micro manage what I choose to spend money on. He also never says that something is stupid if he knows it is really something I want.

He will sometimes ask how much something cost, smile, then go out and spends about the same amount on something he wants for himself when he sees it. I never complain about what he spends money on that I might think is dumb. This is working out well and has been over 20 years.

My ex (Loser) hid over $30k in credit card debt and was making interest only payments on a house that was under water. Didn’t find out until after I moved in and was head-over-heels in love. (Yep! Totally my fault for not asking the right questions to begin with!) But, honoring my commitment, I starting helping out by paying all his bills so he could concentrate on dealing with the house (refinancing, negotiating better terms, etc). Lasted about a year until he started buying free weights, a bicycle, a motorcycle and all the accessories that go with these purchases. That was the beginning of the end…. Got out before too much more damage was done but only after I spent over $20k on trying to help him out. I laugh now as I see his spending hasn’t stopped…. 2 more motorcycles! Just waiting to see when his house goes into foreclosure!

My man is good with his money. However, the courts make him pay spousal support with no end date. So a couple thousand per month goes out to his useless X-wife that almost bankrupted them a few times when they were married due to her wreckless needless and wasteful spending. She’d spend and spend and spend on things like 100’s of teddy bears or super cheap jewelry, etc. The courts need to put an end date to his spousal support since they’ve been apart for over 12 years now. It’s criminal and ridiculous!

We pay all the bills no matter if it leaves us with nothing. But it doesnt usually leave us with nothing, Ill put some in savings and the rest goes toward dinner/movies/toys(you only live once, live a little).

We ran everything like an efficient business;
My job, as CFO, was to make sure the IN BASKET was always full, her job, as secretary of debits and credits, was making sure the basket was empty.
Now my basket is always full while hers is empty.

I’m a squeaker too when it comes to money and paying the bills. Other than that, I save save save, spend, save save save some more, spend. The extra payments on the mortgage (rather than trading up) turned out to be a blessing.

We are waaaay better off than most on our small income. Middle class – in fly over country but not here. By Bay Area Standards we are almost poor.

My man is good with money thank God. He doesn’t shop much but when he does he buys more expensive/nicer things. He likes to buy basketball shoes which are rather pricey but i never complain because he works hard and doesn’t go too crazy with it. He has been rubbing off on me because now i find it easier to buy something more expensive if it is better quality.

We are both pretty frugal when it comes to spending. We live beneath our means and have a house that is paid for. We follow the teachings of The Millionaire Next Door book, retired in our mid 50s, and are multi-millionaires (not bragging) with Comcast Limited Basic Cable at $20 a month (we hate even giving them that much). Many of my friends spend about $200 a month on cable.

I spend too much…I love purses and shoes and leather blazers…no way I’ll ever wear them all. Hubby doesn’t mind…we can afford it…but the older I get the more foolish it becomes.
Neither hubby or I criticize each others spending habits…he only buys what he needs…and that is usually tools and things for our business.

I think if you pay all CC bills every 30 days, and keep other big item payments and utilities paid on time…and you have a substantial savings account or investments…enjoy yourself…you are only going to go around one time………..

(side bar: I saw a family this past summer…obviously on food stamps, unemployment, and generally looking run down….buy a huge pile of fireworks … $300 worth…and with poor little dirty kids, with no shoes….of course it was none of my business ).

We are both good with our money. We work hard and save. Pay all bills and pay off CC monthly. So when we do want something we can get it. Been married 13 yrs.and never fight about money. Since we save alot we are okay when we do want to get cool stuff.

My wife has no concept what money is. She spends and charges like the Govt. Years ago that was fine since we had the money to cover it. Now it’s really tough just to buy food, gas and keep the vehicles in running condition. We can’t even afford a flat screen like the people on welfare.

My Wife–
I sympathize—My hubby is the same way. No concept of our financial situation. I work 12-14 hours on a daily basis, 4 days a week. All the bills are paid, but I have to juggle the finances monthly.

I’m very frugal. Always wash/dry clothes during non-peak hours or hang up to dry; put on a sweater instead of turning up the heat – $850 was the highest bill we ever had! (a/c is the same – turn it on if it’s around 95) – turn off the water when brushing teeth (that goes way back to water rationing days) – take shorter showers, turn off lights, hate to shop, etc. But getting my family to do the same is a different story! My hubby is retired but pays a number of our bills on his SS check. Credit card is paid off every month. Am now in the “think about retirement” mode so we have to really buckle down! We talk about what is important or necessary for us and I’m usually the one who shoots it down! Don’t want to work forever!

i think im related to clark howard. raised by depression era parents. ‘dont waste water, even if it is well water, turn the light out when you leave the room. shower; get wet, suds up and rinse off (i refuse, being naked and cold is very, i dont have the word).

oh woops hit the wrong button.
‘shut that refrigerator door’! figure out what you want and then open the door.
‘you left your curling iron on all day’! in actuality that was maybe 13 cents. and there is ice on the inside of the windows i our home. one good thing about going to school was it was about 20 degrees warmer. oh well it payed off mom has a few properties for being so frugal. dad on the other hand .. nevermind.